Re: NOT Feeding Calves Raw Milk???

[Guest guest]

you will RARELY find any dairies that feed raw milk to their calves, or let calves nurse. Why? Well, the point of a dairy is to SELL milk, not feed calves. And from a perspective of been there done that, it is not just the raw milk that makes for a healthy calf, it is the NURSING. I have 2 calves now that I bought from a dairy. One I have nursing the back quarters of a cow i milk the front of once a day. (she is nursing 2 fostered calves in the daytime, i seperate my cows from their calves at night and milk once a day in the morning. They run with their calves in the daytime) I feed another calf, same age, 2x a day w/ raw milk from a bottle. the nursing once a day calf is healthier, larger, more robust, tho only fed once a day. ANY calf that is on mama and pastured will start grazing w/in a week. bottled, seperated calves take longer because they don;t have mamas to watch and learn from.

Like breastmilk from a bottle, raw milk from a bottle is not as good as mama, but the nature of dairy ops is YOU get the milk not the calves. It is a fact that milk drinkers should realize UNLESS you are working w/ a small operation such as mine.

www.MajestyFarm.comNorth Garden, Virginia

Re: NOT Feeding Calves Raw Milk???

& Sara:The farm is located in southwestern Wisconsin, and it's listed on theEat Wild list. They are selling grassfed Jersey beef, and I'm prettysure it's not a confinement operation! That part of the state ispretty hilly and sparsely populated so I don't think there are any bigdairies there.So, yeah, that's why it's so weird! Reading their farm philosophy, itseems that they're especially concerned about diseases, perhapsbecause they've had bad luck, or maybe they've switched from grainfeeding to grass feeding relatively recently, meaning their herd mighttake generations to fully (re-)adjust to a fully grass-based diet.Needless to say, I won't be buying any meat or dairy from them.Tom> > > http://www.mistyridgefarm.com/Pages/farm_philosophy.htm> > >> > > ("Our Farm Philosophy: Because of our interest in sustainable> > > agriculture, we follow many natural practices but we are concerned> > > about both animal health and quality of life.> > >> > > We use minimal treatments on our livestock. We never feed raw milk> > to> > > calves from lactating animals as is frequently the practice on many> > > farms, including organic farms, due to the concern of transmission> > of> > > e's Disease to calves if fed raw milk.")> > >> > >> > > I don't get it: are some farmers so concerned about disease> > > transmission that they don't even let their calves have raw milk?> > How> > > else are the calves to grow and stay healthy???> > >> > > Tom> >> >> >> > To learn more about Raw Dairy, visit our home pages at > > http://www.midvalleyvu.com> >> >> >------------------------------------------------------------------------> >

[Guest guest]

Yeesh! Yes, exactly my question- what do they feed the calves then

until they are " weaned " ? Exactly where is this farm?

-Sara

> http://www.mistyridgefarm.com/Pages/farm_philosophy.htm

>

> ( " Our Farm Philosophy: Because of our interest in sustainable

> agriculture, we follow many natural practices but we are concerned

> about both animal health and quality of life.

>

> We use minimal treatments on our livestock. We never feed raw milk

to

> calves from lactating animals as is frequently the practice on many

> farms, including organic farms, due to the concern of transmission

of

> e's Disease to calves if fed raw milk. " )

>

>

> I don't get it: are some farmers so concerned about disease

> transmission that they don't even let their calves have raw milk?

How

> else are the calves to grow and stay healthy???

>

> Tom

[Guest guest]

They feed them calf formula, kind of like mothers who don't nurse feed

baby formula. And no, the calves are not as healthy and vibrant as the

ones fed their mother's milk. After a few weeks calves wean themselves

to some grass, but if they could they would still nurse for many

months. In addition, if we are talking about confinement dairy cows,

not grassfed ones, they probably SHOULD be concerned about transmitting

the ne's bacteria. Confinement dairy cows don't give quality milk,

imo.

Sara wrote:

Yeesh! Yes, exactly my question- what do they feed the calves then

until they are "weaned" ? Exactly where is this farm?

-Sara

> http://www.mistyridgefarm.com/Pages/farm_philosophy.htm

>

> ("Our Farm Philosophy: Because of our interest in sustainable

> agriculture, we follow many natural practices but we are concerned

> about both animal health and quality of life.

>

> We use minimal treatments on our livestock. We never feed raw

milk

to

> calves from lactating animals as is frequently the practice on many

> farms, including organic farms, due to the concern of transmission

of

> e's Disease to calves if fed raw milk.")

>

>

> I don't get it: are some farmers so concerned about disease

> transmission that they don't even let their calves have raw milk?

How

> else are the calves to grow and stay healthy???

>

> Tom

To learn more about Raw Dairy, visit our home pages at http://www.midvalleyvu.com

[Guest guest]

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

> http://www.mistyridgefarm.com/Pages/farm_philosophy.htm

>

> ( " Our Farm Philosophy: Because of our interest in sustainable

> agriculture, we follow many natural practices but we are concerned

> about both animal health and quality of life.

>

> We use minimal treatments on our livestock. We never feed raw milk

to

> calves from lactating animals as is frequently the practice on many

> farms, including organic farms, due to the concern of transmission

of

> e's Disease to calves if fed raw milk. " )

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Wow, that's nuts! I don't know if it's completely impossible to

improve on nature, but our species doesn't have a very good track

record so far, and this sounds as stupid as pesticides or

hydroponics... Very sad...

I'm glad to report that I see calves freely moving about and milking

from their mothers at my local farms. However, it's interesting that

at one of the farms they feed calves out of bottles using fresh raw

milk from one of the cows that doesn't pass the test (bacteria levels

or something) for sale to the " milk man " , meaning the commercial

dairy (Horizon) that sends a truck a few times a week to pick up the

milk to be ultra-pasteurized and sold in supermarkets to uninformed

consumers...

Mike

[Guest guest]

& Sara:

The farm is located in southwestern Wisconsin, and it's listed on the

Eat Wild list. They are selling grassfed Jersey beef, and I'm pretty

sure it's not a confinement operation! That part of the state is

pretty hilly and sparsely populated so I don't think there are any big

dairies there.

So, yeah, that's why it's so weird! Reading their farm philosophy, it

seems that they're especially concerned about diseases, perhaps

because they've had bad luck, or maybe they've switched from grain

feeding to grass feeding relatively recently, meaning their herd might

take generations to fully (re-)adjust to a fully grass-based diet.

Needless to say, I won't be buying any meat or dairy from them.

Tom

> > > http://www.mistyridgefarm.com/Pages/farm_philosophy.htm

> > >

> > > ( " Our Farm Philosophy: Because of our interest in sustainable

> > > agriculture, we follow many natural practices but we are concerned

> > > about both animal health and quality of life.

> > >

> > > We use minimal treatments on our livestock. We never feed raw milk

> > to

> > > calves from lactating animals as is frequently the practice on many

> > > farms, including organic farms, due to the concern of transmission

> > of

> > > e's Disease to calves if fed raw milk. " )

> > >

> > >

> > > I don't get it: are some farmers so concerned about disease

> > > transmission that they don't even let their calves have raw milk?

> > How

> > > else are the calves to grow and stay healthy???

> > >

> > > Tom

> >

> >

> >

> > To learn more about Raw Dairy, visit our home pages at

> > http://www.midvalleyvu.com

> >

> >

> >

------------------------------------------------------------------------

> >

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the firsthand insight, ! Very interesting. And the

fact that udder-fed calves do better is no surprise.

Tom

> > > > http://www.mistyridgefarm.com/Pages/farm_philosophy.htm

> > > >

> > > > ( " Our Farm Philosophy: Because of our interest in sustainable

> > > > agriculture, we follow many natural practices but we are

concerned

> > > > about both animal health and quality of life.

> > > >

> > > > We use minimal treatments on our livestock. We never feed

raw milk

> > > to

> > > > calves from lactating animals as is frequently the practice

on many

> > > > farms, including organic farms, due to the concern of

transmission

> > > of

> > > > e's Disease to calves if fed raw milk. " )

> > > >

> > > >

> > > > I don't get it: are some farmers so concerned about disease

> > > > transmission that they don't even let their calves have raw

milk?

> > > How

> > > > else are the calves to grow and stay healthy???

> > > >

> > > > Tom

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > > To learn more about Raw Dairy, visit our home pages at

> > > http://www.midvalleyvu.com

> > >

> > >

> > >

>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

> > >